A Finished Top

Hi chicks!

This top has been hanging here on the design board since last week, waiting for me to quickly piece the back and get it on the long arm.  However, rather than having any kind of quilty fun, I somehow managed to contract Influenza A and have been down and out in my bed since 11 am Sunday.
I now understand the importance of getting a flu shot, and I totally understand why and how people die from the flu….it is HORRIBLE.
Thankfully my daughter Nikki decided I had to go to the doctor and made an appointment FOR me. She also took me there, got my prescriptions (Tamiflu is a miracle drug!) and saw to it that I had whatever I needed --- all at her own peril.  I am forever grateful to her for that.
I'm feeling a little more like myself every day…..but I'm not pushing it since I will be hosting Thanksgiving next week!

So….that's about it for now….I'm going to sit in my chair, watch the snow blow around the back yard and hopefully take a nap.

S

TGIF!

It's Friday!!!!

I didn't want to let the day go by without posting my progress on a new project.
I've been eyeing this fabric for awhile.

It is Emerson by Dear Stella.  I love the blues so much, and the collection had such a nice variety of prints that I just couldn't pass it up. ( The DARK blue is from the Grunge collection)   I couldn't decide on a pattern for awhile--I wanted something that wouldn't cut the print up too small.  I had a few ideas but ended up deciding to use the chevron with no half square tutorial that I used to make THIS quilt.  I had fun quilting it on my long arm and wanted some more practice using my ruler.

There was lots of cutting of strips and sewing and pressing, which went very quickly…

And I've been working this morning on getting my rows sewn together….

I have another couple of hours of sewing and pressing ahead of me…but there are a few other things on today's To Do list, so I'll get back to this one later.

S

Comfort Quilt For Dawn

After hearing that my husband's cousin Dawn was facing a very serious health issue, I was compelled to make a quilt for her.  I used a bundle of fabric from Guildcrafters, one of the very well-stocked quilt shops in my area.  I actually found the bundle, one of many that I bought, at a quilt show they were vending at this summer in Ann Arbor, Mi.

























The pattern is one of the "post card patterns"…this one called
Spice Drop….by Villa Rosa Designs.
It finished up at 54" x 72"…and was made with 14 fat quarters cut into 6 1/2" x 18" strips.
Super fast cutting and very simple sewing, so it went together quickly.

 I quilted it on my HQ Avante.  The panto is called Drift.  

Yes, I used Minky again…..it is so easy to load on my machine, 
and the texture and softness it adds to a quilt is just wonderful!

I'll be wrapping this one up today and sending it on it's way, with hopes that it will make the days ahead for Dawn a little more comfortable.

S.

Comfort Quilt Progress

It's a top!

And a shot of it from the backside:

This view always makes me think of stained glass windows!

Now to find a backing (yes, it will most likely be a minty back!)

Hoping to have it quilted by Sunday night and get it delivered first thing Monday.

I'll keep you posted!

On A Mission...

Some unexpected bad news has sent me to the quilt room in search of fabric.
Lucky for me I found some…another Guildcrafters kit stashed away, almost forgotten about until today when I went on a search…...

I'll get back with you with progress!

Scrapped, Scraps, and a Lack of Creativity….

I've been working hard on Talkin' Turkey from Bonnie Hunter's book String Fling.
I had given up on it for awhile.  The fabrics weren't interesting to me anymore (shirting scraps) and I just wasn't enjoying working on it.
I decided to get a few new fabrics to add to it the last few times I was at some of the local quilt shops, and I was really starting to like it again.
I had hundreds of pieces cut and sewn, and decided it was time to put some blocks together and see if I wanted to continue.

Thats when I realized that I hadn't measured any of the units as I went along to make sure that they were the proper size and would fit together into blocks.
As luck (and lack of skill would have it) They didn't fit.  Some were too large.  Ones that I had trimmed to size were now to small to use.  (If I had not trimmed anything up they might have worked).
And so…..the whole mess got tossed into a bin until I could stop crying long enough to make an intelligent decision about what to do with all that fabric/work.

I did decide to keep the string pieced blocks that had not yet been cut in half….so today when I was unable to decide what I could work on I decided to just sew some more of those string blocks and maybe, one day, put them together into a quilt.

I played around with them for a few minutes…which was actually pointless because I just picked them up and flung them back into their bin……….

Since my own creativity has decided to pack up and leave town,

I'll share someone else's talents…..

The picture below is actually a photo taken by Claudette!  Isn't it gorgeous?  It looks like a painting to me.

Quick Craft Satisfaction

A quick trip to Ikea a couple weeks ago …wait.  There's no such thing as a quick trip to Ikea.
I was in there for HOURS!
I don't really remember what all I bought, but THIS was my big get:

Just a simple cabinet door front.  From that clearance/reject section.
It was priced at $1.00.
At that price there was no way I wasn't taking it home.  I knew I could think of something I would do with it.  A perfect blank canvas that would require no prep work, depending on what I would find to do with it.
When I got it home I realized I had this:

I had purchased this rub- on decal last year thinking I would put it on my front door…and I never did.  

(That whole procrastination thing strikes again!)

The project took me all of 10 minutes…….

And now I can wonder / ponder/ agonize about where I will hang it.